Year: 2010

Following on from my previous blog entry, while the manual method is simple enough, and we could just import a .REG file to force “Security Packages” and “SecurityProviders” to fixed values, it would be more elegant to have a smarter solution that will make the amendments if necessary. So here is a VBScript to check…

Imagine the following scenario: DC01 is a Domain Controller for test.net with the Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker service role installed. RDS01 and RDS02 are W2K8R2 member servers in test.net and have the Remote Desktop Services Session Host service role installed, configured as members in a Connection Broker farm (using DC01 as the broker). CLIENT…

You should know the score by now – I install application FOO into “C:\Program Files\Foo Inc\Foo” and it has a built-in manifest stating that asInvoker is used for its requested privilege level, allowing standard users to run it. Attempts by standard users to write to “C:\Program Files\Foo Inc\Foo” do not fail with “access denied” (as…

User Account Control (UAC) has now been with us for almost 4 years, and still it is a mystery to a lot of people – what it does, why it does it and what value it adds… so I shall try to shed some light on this for those that want “complete control” of a…

Following on from my previous blog entry, there is now a public FAQ to address the questions being asked practically every day – below are my top 5 of which to be aware: Q: When will SP1 be released? A: Service Pack 1 will be released within the first half of calendar year 2011. Q:…

The Self-Service Portal is a web application provided as part of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and allows “non admin” users to be able to work with specific VMs, and possibly even have the right to deploy new ones. Being a web application, the interface is accessed via a browser – the opening page…

Here is a VBScript which can be used to get the following information from a W2K, W2K3, W2K8 or W2K8R2 server via WMI: – is Remote Desktop enabled? – is Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services configured for Application Server or Remote Administration? – what TS/RDS license servers have been defined? – what TS license…

Following on from: GDR, QFE, LDR… WTH? Branching Out Service Packs – Levels vs Installers One of the questions I have received a few times after publishing the previous blogs is “how do I see if a given binary is on the GDR or LDR branch on my system?” Pre-Vista this is actually simple to…

If you need to test the new RemoteFX or Dynamic Memory features in W2K8R2 RDS or Hyper-V respectively, then you can download the beta of the upcoming first service pack for Windows Server 2008 R2 (and Windows 7 for the client-side bits) here. I wouldn’t bother installing the beta service pack on a Windows 7…

After setting up a W2K8R2 “Server Core” Hyper-V host recently, I thought it a good idea to jot down some notes as to how to navigate the command prompt (mostly) so it can be configured – a flashback to the days of MS-DOS in some ways 😉 NOTE: All of the following commands are on…